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Associated Press   19-Aug-1999   Why are the Slavs hungry?
To the question "Why are Slavs hungry?" an indirect answer might be that $10 billion buys a lot of food.
We have already seen the name of Semyon Mogilevich on the Ukrainian Archive, from which account I quote the following:

The enigmatic leader of the Red Mafia is a 52-year-old Ukrainian-born Jew named Semion Mogilevich.  He is a shadowy figure known as the "Brainy Don" � he holds an economics degree from the University of Lvov � and until now, he has never been exposed by the media.  But the Voice has obtained hundreds of pages of classified FBI and Israeli intelligence documents from August 1996, and these documents � as well as recent interviews with a key criminal associate and with dozens of law enforcement sources here and abroad � describe him as someone who has become a grave threat to the stability of Israel and Eastern Europe.  (Robert I. Friedman, The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World, The Village Voice, 22May98.)

To the question "What soil does Slavic organized crime grow in?" one observation that might be of relevance is that the Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky cited below is a coreligionist of Semion Mogilevich.  The Lucy Edwards cited below was reported in the New York Times to have been born in Russia, so that "Lucy Edwards" is possibly not her original name.

To the question "What help does the Slavic world need?" the best answer might be that it needs to stop being plundered.

To the question "Why are Slavs hungry?" an indirect answer might be that $10 billion buys a lot of food.

To the question "Why is the West so affluent?" a partial answer might be that it plunders the Third World, into which it has pushed Russia and Ukraine.

To the question "How is it possible for a bank to implement the laundering of $10 billion in stolen money and yet not be guilty of wrongdoing?" an answer might be that "Good is the evil which is permitted."

To the question "Is Slavic anti-Semitism gratuitous?" one answer might be "It does not seem gratuitous to the Slavs whose stomachs are empty."

To the question "Why is it politically correct to speak of 'Russian organized crime' as the AP article does below, but not of 'Jewish organized crime'?" one answer might be the wide dissemination of the belief that 870,000 Jews were killed at Treblinka.  Why does CBS below see nothing wrong with saying "the Russians reportedly flooded the Bank of New York with 10,000 transactions" but could never bring itself to say that "the Jews reportedly flooded the Bank of New York with 10,000 transactions"?  The answer is Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.

To the question "Are Jews cohesive?" it may be relevant to note in the New York Times excerpt farther below that Jewish gangster Semion Mogilevich put out a contract on the life of Jewish journalist Robert Friedman, and to note in the CBS excerpt at the bottom of the present page that it may be the same Jewish gangster who is selling nuclear technology to Iran, contrary to the interests of Israel.

Thursday August 19 2:41 AM ET

N.Y. Bank Said in Laundering Scheme

NEW YORK (AP) � As much as $10 billion may have been laundered through the Bank of New York in the past year in what investigators say is an operation run by Russian organized crime, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Some $4.2 billion passed through a single account between October and March, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified investigators.

The bank has suspended two senior officers in its Eastern European division � Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky of New York and Lucy Edwards of London � pending the outcome of the investigation.

Ms. Kagalovsky declined comment.  An aide to Ms. Edwards said she was traveling.

Investigators here and abroad have examined whether front companies are raising money in North America for organized crime activities in Russia.

The accounts under scrutiny at the Bank of New York have been linked to Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich, who is believed to be a major figure in Russian organized crime, the Times said.

In a statement, the bank said it was cooperating with investigators and said no customer or bank funds had been lost.

"There are no allegations of wrongdoing by the bank," the statement said.

The Bank of New York, with assets of $67 billion, is the nation's 17th largest.


And a few details from the New York Times originally at:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/081999russians-launder.html

August 19, 1999

Activity at Bank Raises Suspicions of Russian Mob Tie

By RAYMOND BONNER with TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

[...]

British intelligence reported that some of the money from the account went to pay contract killers and some went to drug barons, American officials said.

Mogilevich is considered smart, ruthless and vastly wealthy.  A 1995 British intelligence report said he was worth $100 million.  Last year, after an American journalist, Robert Friedman, wrote a long expos� of his criminal career in The Village Voice, Mogilevich put out a contract on the reporter's life, the Central Intelligence Agency and the F.B.I. said.

The threat was picked up during a telephone intercept by the C.I.A., which was monitoring Mogilevich's phone.  A European law enforcement official said recently that the contract was for $100,000.  Friedman went into hiding for a while and later resumed writing.

The C.I.A. and European intelligence agencies have been intensely monitoring the activities of Mogilevich, who is 53, for five years, an American official said recently.

An F.B.I. report on Russian organized crime said that when the Soviet Union withdrew its military forces from East Germany, many Russian generals sold their weapons to Mogilevich, who in turn sold them, at much higher prices, to countries like Iraq, Iran and Serbia.

[...]


And a bit more detail from CBS, originally at:

http://www.cbs.com/flat/story_177839.html

WASHINGTON
Thursday, August 19, 1999 � 10:17 PM ET

Semyon Mogilevich (CBS) [...]

In a country increasingly rocked by mob violence, federal and international investigators say Mogilevich stands out.  "He's a money launderer," says former CIA analyst Rick Palmer.  "He's a money launderer who's also brutal."

One report says Mogilevich employed Russian veterans who became infamous for their torture of extortion victims.  Other reports link him to ongoing efforts to sell off part of Russia's aging nuclear arsenal.  Palmer says, "Certainly the nuclear program in Iran wouldn't even exist, not nearly at the level it is, without the Russian existence.  It's out there."

What bothers federal authorities most about this case is the sheer scope of it all.  In one six-month period, the Russians reportedly flooded the Bank of New York with 10,000 transactions totaling more than $4 billion � and apparently have a great deal more where that came from.
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